Jenna McDougall continues to thrive as Hevenshe. Post-Tonight Alive, she’s more comfortable expressing herself, her womanhood and her spirituality. With a brilliant showing at 2000trees under her belt, she tells us where she’s at right now, and how her community of fans keeps her moving ever forward…
“There is a real collective exhale at a Hevenshe show,” says Jenna McDougall, creative force behind the ‘life-affirming femme rock’ project and Tonight Alive vocalist, as she cradles a restless pooch in her lap.
“I’m just starting to properly gauge what my audience feels like to me and what we’re sharing at my shows compared to Tonight Alive,” she adds. “There are a lot of similar people, so it doesn’t differ hugely except there’s no moshing or screaming for your life!”
Off the back of a headline show at London’s Omeara, a resplendent performance at 2000trees with drummer Paris Jeffree, and a road trip of her own around England involving riverside walks and pub breakfasts, Jenna is relaxed at her home among the Australian winter, where she’s taking a pause.
It’s the perfect window to reflect on all she has achieved as a solo artist, and to look ahead at who she is becoming. Right now in the present, Jenna believes her artistry as Hevenshe is exactly where it needs to be. “I felt like I was summoned there by the fans,” she shares, thinking back to her set at Trees’ sun-streaked Forest Sessions Stage. “I really felt like I was destined to be there.”
Her time among the towering evergreens certainly felt like a pocket of bliss among a festival otherwise gloriously loud and chaotic. There’s an invisible string between this part of herself and the music she makes as Hevenshe, with the name itself alluding to divine feminine energy.
“My spirituality started to evolve through having health issues in my early 20s,” she explains. “I started seeking holistic remedies and that opened up interest in alternative esoteric ideas and spiritual philosophies. In Eastern medicine, that’s really tied into the way they treat physical health.
“I experience [spirituality] most through journaling and hypnotherapy. I use oracle and tarot cards; my house is full of crystals, but they’re not something I consciously use, they’re just here to increase the vibration. But also, I find that through creativity you meet yourself more and more. [I’m] practicing more prayer lately, and trying to find a relationship with a higher being that doesn’t necessarily have a name, but a feeling.”
Having grown up in a band who were often in a more 'bro' environment, Jenna gets to tap into the parts of her that lay dormant in her youth: her connection to femininity, her queer identity, the softer elements of her character that were always there, but armoured and less visible.
“It’s not something I’m afraid to feel or express. I think improved body image has been a really nice way to enjoy being a woman and to not resent any part of the physical form of womanhood.
“I need my feminine days,” she adds. These are spent among the natural elements, living at a slow pace, and nurturing her inner self. “They probably only happen a couple of times a month, but I never would have thought about that or used that language five or 10 years ago.”
Hevenshe came to fruition in 2022, but it was her 2023 EP Wild Wild Heart that really kickstarted this introspective era into motion. Two years on, Jenna is becoming more honest with the world through music: she promoted her latest single Floor Bed by re-sharing an iconic tweet she posted back in 2011 declaring, “yes everyone I like girls”. Over a decade has passed since it graced the internet, but only in recent years does it seem like she’s truly leant into this treasured part of her identity. Jenna agrees.
“I certainly hadn’t loved a woman before [writing that song]. In the past few years, it’s become an integrated part of my life, not just something I’m aware of that’s compartmentalised. I’d written queer lyrics before but they weren’t songs that ever got finished.
“I think it’s really reflective of the courage that I was practising in my life, not just in my creativity. It was the ‘all-in’: if I’m going to release this song, I have to tell my parents, everyone’s going to know. It changed my life doing that. The boldness of those lyrics reflects the boldness of my inner personal life as well. That’s an initiation I had to go through in my 30s… I’m really proud of it.”
To be share so much of her inner world outwardly has not been an easy task. The early days of Hevenshe surfaced mental health struggles for Jenna. But it's also forced her to look at her relationship with success and ultimately has taught her new lessons as a musician, a businesswoman and a human being.
“For the first time in my life, I [can] look at myself and go, ‘Fuck, I’m hardworking!’ I’m impressed with my work ethic and my business mindset. But it’s pushed me to develop better self-esteem because starting again, it’s extremely humbling,” she says.
Hevenshe’s independence makes it powerful. Where the majority of artists have to remain tight-lipped about their future releases, Jenna has it all laid out, and is open to share her plans for new music. In fact, she’d love your help.
“I’m going to make a fan-funded record. Patreon has kept Hevenshe alive for the past few years. I made an enormous investment when I started the project but that wasn’t sustainable. I’m going to launch a Kickstarter this August and make a record; I want to make a legacy piece for Hevenshe, but also a shared achievement between me and my audience.
“I’ve looked for a record label and a team, and I’ve started to realise that my fans are my team; they are my investors and my champions. They’re the ones that go out there and cheerlead for me. I’m a little exhausted from trying to make people in the [music business] care about Hevenshe. Of course I’d love to play bigger shows and put out loads of records, but I’m going to be really satisfied if my fans and I can make a record together this year. That’s my North Star.”
Jenna proudly states that this is her “prime, creatively and energetically”. She’ll be joining The Used for their 25th anniversary tour soon, but that’s not all: after reuniting in 2024 for When We Were Young Festival, it confirmed how much she still cares for Tonight Alive. The band have two gigs scheduled for September, and there’s more to come.
“We have announcements coming about more shows,” she beams. “I love the Tonight Alive songs, and during the hiatus I was like, ‘Fuck, if we don’t ever come back, it’s going to break my heart to never play those songs again!’”
There’s a harmonious balance between the two outlets. The future has never looked so Hevenly.
“Life is rich, fertile, and vibrant when I create or perform. The reason I keep going is because I’m in my wholeness, and I’m shining. The more I’m myself, it’s a service.
“When you see someone shining, you want to shine. I can play my part in that.”
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